The Best Invention Ever Created
Have you ever had a head ache? One that is so bad that it felt like a hammer pounding continuously inside your head. This could be a number of things: Just a normal headache, a migraine, or it could be caused by straining your eyes. Or it could be a much more life changing problem such as a brain tumor putting so much pressure inside your head causing you to feel severe pain. Luckily in 1973 neurosurgery was developed.
The invention of brain surgery (neurosurgery) started off very slow as Russian and American anatomists experimented on monkeys to study their brains and how they work. Among all the scientists involved in this invention, the greatest addition to this invention was found. Robert Henry Clarke and Victory Horsley invented stereotaxis which is a method in neurosurgery and neurological research for locating points within the brain using an external three-dimensional frame of reference usually based on the Cartesian coordinate system. In 1906 they wrote that “by this means every cubic millimeter of the brain could be studied and recorded.” A more complete description of the stereotactic instrument, atlas, and methods was reported in their classic paper of 1908. The Horsley-Clarke Device was based on the reproducibility of the relationships between landmarks on the skull.
As the proportion of U.S. tumor survivors has tripled in the last 30 years, brain tumors cut has stayed low. Even with survival rates increasing due to technology, you still have a very little chance of surviving a brain tumor depending on if it is minor or very serious. If you catch the tumor before it has gotten to big it could be cured with simple surgery or chemo therapy. A serious tumor is one that is cancerous and will have to be very carefully removed from your head throughout a very enduring surgical process.
Technology has changed but most neurosurgery is still done by an actual neurosurgeon because the tumor has to be very carefully pulled out of the skull. Although in a few years this will probably change to a sort of robotic laser surgery. Many inventions have been created but in my opinion neurosurgery is probably one of the best. This surgery, if not preformed correctly, it could result in death. Surprisingly most tumors are developed in children, also many are found in older adults. Medical science doesn’t know what causes brain tumors, or how to prevent primary tumors that start in the brain.
People most at risk for brain tumors include those who have: cancer elsewhere in the body, prolonged exposure to pesticides, industrial solvents, other chemicals, and inherited diseases, such as neurofibromatosis. Neurosurgery has changed medical science in ways that have saved more lives than you could even imagine. Most times if you survive the surgery it is a miracle depending on the condition you have. Many fatalities do occur during or after this surgery, but if you have a tumor without getting proper medical attention you will probably not survive. That leads to my point, neurosurgery at least gives you a chance to survive, a chance that you could live the rest of your life, and a chance to actually beat cancerous tumors. In my opinion chances are what life is made of. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hmn/W05/feature3.cfm http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stereotaxis http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-BrainTumor.htm
